585. Masculinity And Femininity As Identity Crutches
Masculinity and femininity are both identities based upon specific dispositions for needs and behaviors determined by virulent instincts. The stronger the instincts, the more masculinity and femininity are pronounced. The stronger masculinity and femininity, the more they bring out the worst in men and in women.
Masculinity and femininity are both identities based upon specific dispositions for needs and behaviors determined by virulent instincts. The stronger the instincts, the more masculinity and femininity are pronounced. The stronger masculinity and femininity, the more they bring out the worst in men and in women.
Masculinity and femininity are consciously expressed as favorable attitudes towards specific instincts.
Masculinity is based upon a positive attitude towards more or less excessive instinctive urges for sexual homeostation leading to the objectification of women, and towards the hierarchy and ingroup-outgroup instincts, leading to competition, fighting, domination, aggression. All this often causes extreme suffering for the victims.
Femininity is based upon a positive attitude towards the more or less instinctive breeding urge. This leads not only to their sacrificing their own wellbeing for the priority of breeding, but they burden the disadvantages of breeding also upon other people.
Masculinity and femininity are complementary identities. Masculine men abuse women's bodies as objects, feminine women displace their bonding needs to their offspring and do not offer bonding to a partner.
Masculinity and femininity are the social norm.
- When their high instinctivity predisposes people to innately conform
with the social norm, they are at ease with themselves and with their
social surroundings. For people with more cognition than instincts,
they are a hazard.
- There are also those other men and women, who are either equally instinct driven and controlled by cognition, or their cognition is even stronger than their instinctivity. In this situation, their confidence makes a big difference.
- Strong, secure and independent thinkers with high self-esteem are not impressed by the pressure from a social norm, which does not fit their needs. They reject masculinity and femininity in favor of a gender neutral rationality, they are only concerned about their genuine emotions and needs. They too live in the congruence of their attitudes with their innate inclinations.
- But those also lacking confidence, who are insecure and have low self-esteem, are
in a especially difficult situation. They need an identity. Theoretically
they have two options, a cognitive or an instinctive identity, depending what influences their ideal self.
- The more appropriate cognitive identity is hard to obtain,
it requires learning, working on oneself, mental and intellectual
efforts and resisting social pressure.
The false instinctive identity is much easier to obtain. It just needs to refrain from any self-control or reasoning and to allow existing instincts to rule. The rest is imitation of all the other instinct driven people and to fulfill the expectations of the social norm. It is the choice of the least resistance. - Some people may even not feel any of the instincts, and nevertheless strife to fulfill the social norm, because it supplies them with a fake identity. They may even relapse at the same time into some apparent cognitive behaviors and appear contradictory and inconsistent.
Whatever the exact dynamics, masculinity and femininity are for these people no real identities, but identity crutches. - The more appropriate cognitive identity is hard to obtain,
it requires learning, working on oneself, mental and intellectual
efforts and resisting social pressure.